Conneaut Lake
is Pennsylvania’s largest natural lake with a surface area of approximately 930 acres and depths reaching 68
ft. Located off of State Route 18 in Crawford County, Conneaut Lake is a popular recreational destination
for boaters and anglers. The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission maintains a public boat launch and access
area on the northwestern part of Conneaut Lake.

During the week of April 14th, 2008 Area 1 Fisheries Management
personnel sampled the fishery of Conneaut Lake by means of Pennsylvania style trap nets. Four nets were
set and lifted on four occasions resulting in a total of 16 net-catches in 371 hours of trapnet effort.
A total of 981 fish were caught encompassing 17 different species.

Panfish were the most abundant species
found in the nets. Bluegill, black crappie, rock bass, pumpkinseed, and yellow perch representing 642 of
the 981 total fish netted. Out of the panfish sampled 89% were 5 inches and larger with bluegills averaging
7-8 inches and black crappie averaging 9-11 inches.

A total of 168
bowfin and 27 northern pike were caught. Bowfin were of impressive size ranging from 13 to 28 inches. This
unique and native fish is found in only a few of Pa’s waters
and fights hard when hooked. Northern pike caught ranged from 15 to 35 inches.

Area 1 Fisheries Biologist
Aide Devin DeMario with a female bowfin

Fisheries Biologist Aide Devin DeMario with a 34-inch northern
pike

Although trapnets are not used to index black bass abundance, Conneaut Lake trap nets captured a
number of impressive sized smallmouth ranging in size from 12-20 inches. To index black bass population
density in Conneaut Lake an electrofishing survey was performed on May 20th and 21st, 2008. A total of
59 bass were collected in 1.91 hours of electrofishing effort which included 54 largemouth bass and 5 smallmouth bass.
This resulted in a catch rate of 28 largemouth per hour. Largemouth bass ranged in size from 5-18 inches with 52% of
the sample being larger than 12 inches and 11% being larger than 15 inches (Figure 1). Smallmouth bass sampled via
electrofishing were 10-15 inches in length.

Area 1 Fisheries Biologist Freeman
Johns with a 20-inch smallmouth bass caught in a trap net

Muskellunge were not sampled during this survey although
we continue to receive reports of angler catches of musky. Likewise no walleye were sampled. Over the last
decade the PFBC has stocked over 700,000 walleye fry annually, in 2007 these fry were supplemented with approximately
20,000 fingerlings in hopes of improving recruitment of younger walleye into the population. We plan to conduct follow
up surveys to further evaluate the populations of these two important species in Conneaut Lake.

Conneaut Lake should prove to be a productive
sport fishery for black bass, northern pike and panfish in the year to come.

Devin DeMario and Area 2 Fisheries Biologist
Tim Wilson with an average crappie catch